ROB YOUNGSON / Netflix
From teen dramas to politically engaged period pieces, here are 7 LGBTQ+ series to binge-watch on Netflix during–and after–Pride Month
Looking for an LGBTQ+ series to watch on Netflix? While the streaming platform boasts a great number of movies representing the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities, it also offers longer formats that are just as diverse. For Pride Month, Vogue breaks down the very best LGBTQ+ series to watch to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month from the comfort of our screens.
Cable Girls
This series, created by Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira, takes us back to Madrid in the 1930s. As the national telephone operator inaugurates its headquarters in the center of the city, hundreds of young women try to secure a position with the company, the one place representing progress and modernity for them at the time. The story focuses on four of them, from very different backgrounds: Alba, a fugitive posing as Lidia, Marga, a shy young woman who has left her family and native countryside in the hope of a better life, sweet Ángeles, whose husband is a constant abuser, and Carlota, the daughter of a wealthy Madrid family. The latter is surely the most committed of them all, fighting furiously against the horrors of patriarchy, but also for homosexuality and trans-identity. From the moment they’re hired, their desire for independence mingles with a thirst for success, friendship and love.
Heartstopper
Adapted from Alice Oseman‘s graphic novel, the British series Heartstopper is Netflix’s most adorable offering. The first season thrilled with the romance between Charlie and Nick, two teenagers who meet, become friends and then fall in love with each other. Creative, moving and totally in tune with the issues of its time, this tender drama is returning to the streaming platform soon with its second season.
Orange Is the New Black
A women’s prison, garish jumpsuits and stories to spare. That’s how the gripping series Orange Is the New Black presents itself, having become a Netflix catalog classic since its arrival in 2013. Led by its protagonist Piper Chapman, a white woman who discovers she’s a lesbian when she’s attracted to another inmate, the series is one of the first to offer a voice to minorities long silenced by the industry. A must-see.
Young Royals
When young Prince Wilhelm arrives at the Hillerska boarding school in Sweden, he begins to dream of a future in which he can enjoy complete freedom, the chance to get to know himself and to discover love with a boy (a rare occurrence in fiction about royalty), free from any obligation to his family. But when he suddenly finds himself first in line to the throne, things get complicated. A royal series, but with just the right amount of teenage (another good point here: the teens are played by real teens) and queer edge to make a wide audience with a taste for romance addicted to the series.
Sex Education
A teenage series that isn’t limited to a teenage audience. Since 2019, this British comedy created by Laurie Nunn for Netflix has been telling the story of the sexual tribulations of Otis, a rather awkward young boy, but also of his incredibly endearing mother, Jean. The latter is a sex therapist, which comes in very handy when her son decides to play apprentice sex therapist to his high school classmates. Launched in the wake of #MeToo and necessary changes in the entertainment industry such as the introduction of an intimacy coordinator on film sets, Sex Education immediately seduces by upsetting representations of sexuality on screen. Season after season, the benevolent drama has grown in complexity to speak as much of love as of friendship, of money problems as of disability, of self-assertion as of solidarity.
Master of None
An Emmy award-winner, Master of None recounts the vagaries of intimate life with a certain irresistible teasing tone. Between great moments of romance and bitter personal disappointment, the series showcases the little things in everyday life, and gains strength from its incredible characters, particularly the women, who blend impertinence and humor with a fine balance (the series is inspired by the sketches of Aziz Ansari, the Indian-born American humorist behind the program). Our favorite season? The third, centered on Denise‘s lesbian couple.
I am not okay with this
Created by the team behind The End of the F***ing World, this irreverent series adapted from Charles Forsman‘s graphic novel follows Sydney, a troubled high-schooler who has to juggle a complicated family background, her budding sexuality and the discovery of mediumistic powers. The story may flirt with science fiction, but its message is no less relevant: it’s incredibly complicated to cultivate one’s difference in an environment as uniform as high school. A critically acclaimed series.
Translated by Jack Pownall.
This article was originally published on Vogue France.
